Magic
History Magic was first conceived of in LY 270, by Murray of First Village. At the time, he was having a conversation with his friend Jess. The idea which occurred to Murray was that, if God and other spirits were capable of doing things which seemed to be at odds with the natural laws of the Universe which God Himself had created, perhaps He had actually included within the design of those natural laws certain loopholes, or ways of doing things that didn't actually break the laws. And if there were some kind of hidden natural laws that spirits used to do some of the seemingly supernatural things that they did, perhaps humans could also be taught to use those laws. After a bit of thought, Murray and Jess came up with a subword to describe such things: magic. They wondered if the idea was not only possible, but even allowable; perhaps it would be sacrilegious to even try. So they went to a spirit-talker named Sol, to ask if there were any rules concerning magic. Sol asked various spirits he knew about this, and they all said there was no reason it couldn't be done. And so, Murray, Jess, and Sol began talking with other villagers, including several spirit-talkers. They assembled a group of settlers, who headed first to Tonad, where more people joined them, and finally they all headed west. Eventually they reached a forest, and on the far side of that they found the western coast of First Land (this was the first time anyone on The Land had ever seen the edge of the land, or any body of water larger than a river). They cleared out a section of forest on the coast, and in Fir'mo' of 271, began building the Land's third village, which they named Sorret. The largest and most important building they erected was Sorret Magic Academy, which over the years came to include a number of other buildings within a larger campus. There, spirits began instructing apprentices in the use of magic. Of course, there are plenty of people who live in Sorret who do not study magic, having more traditional occupations which are necessary to keep any village going. The name of the village naturally led to the term Sorreters, which originally meant anyone who lived in Sorret; though within a few years, the term came to refer specifically to people who practiced magic. "Sorreter" is a unisex term, meant to replace the gender-specific terms "sorcerer" and "sorceress," as used on Earth. (The term "Sorreter" also led to magic sometimes being referred to as "sorretry.") However, when Roderick and the First 50 Elves founded Woodstockade in 773, they chose to use the Terran terms for magic-users, rather than the Landian term. It should also be mentioned that after the Protestant Sorreters disappeared in 903, they have been referred to as "ex-Sorreters." (This term is sometimes also applied, incorrectly, to Sorreters who have simply moved to other villages.) Ranks Apprentice is the lowest level of Sorreters, who are still in training. Adepts are Sorreters who have attained a certain skill level, and at that point they may choose to largely discontinue their training. It has become common, particularly since the Coming of the Order, for adept Sorreters to leave Sorret, and either become adventurers or take up jobs in other villages. There are a great many newly created positions which have come into existence since the Coming, and demand for this very specialized skill set is high. Sorreters may create any of various magical devices to sell to non-Sorreters as well as to use themselves, though there are some types of spells which cannot be transferred to devices, but can only be performed by actual Sorreters. (Of course, any of these jobs, whether performing spells or simply creating and selling magical items, may also be done by Sorreters who choose to remain in Sorret.) Aside from the various retail and service industries, there are also a fair number of Sorreters working for the government, as well as for gangs. Master-adepts are adepts who have continued their training to an even higher level (which requires them to remain in Sorret). Most master-adepts go on to train apprentices (hence the term "master"), though some lower-level classes may be taught by adepts. And there are some master-adepts who do little or no teaching, whether because they have responsibilities that take up too much of their time, such as being on the village council, or having religious duties in the community, or simply because their attainment of this status level was a matter of a desire to push their own learning as far as they could take it, rather than a desire to eventually become teachers. Grand Sorreter is generally the most highly-skilled magic-user in Sorret. He or she is the head of Sorret Magic Academy, though this is more an administrative role than a teaching position. They are also traditionally the political head of the village (Chief Councillor), though this is no longer a certainty, since the establishment of the Second Order, at which point the entire makeup of and means of appointment to the Sorret Council was altered from its original orientation of being concerned predominantly with matters internal to the magical community, and only secondarily to political matters within the village as a whole. Also, since the establishment of the Order in 404, the Grand Sorreter has almost always also been the bishop of Sorret. Fundamental principles There are a number of principles of magic, some of which are commonly known to non-Sorreters, and some which are not. The most important principle is the inseparability of magic, science, and religion. Technically, religion is the highest of these three elements, since it was God who created the natural laws of the Universe which make both science and magic possible. Also because without the training received from spirits, it would have been impossible for the first generation of Sorreters to learn any magic at all. Science is important because on a certain level, magic is merely a way of applying types of science which are far beyond the current level of Landian understanding (and in fact, much of it is beyond the current scientific understanding of far more advanced worlds like Earth). In the future, it is expected that straightforward science and technology will replace magic, though at first the way this is done will be greatly different from the way it is done by magical means. In the very distant future, science will develop ever-simpler ways of applying specific functions, until finally it reaches a level which is virtually indistinguishable, if not identical, to the way it was done by magic. At that time, people (particularly non-Landians) may recognize this super-advanced science as resembling magic, but won't truly think of it as such. (And they will be essentially right not to do, though they'll also be wrong, in the sense that all "magic" ever was was the primitive application of this same advanced science.) In the earliest days of sorretry, spirit-talking was necessary for all apprentices to learn any type of magic. However, once the basic techniques were learned, those techniques could then be taught to new generations of apprentices by those Sorreters who had come before them. Experienced Sorreters also now had sufficient understanding of the underlying principles of magic to conduct their own magical experiments, to learn new techniques without necessarily being taught by spirits. Of course, it is still required for all Sorreters to be spirit-talkers, though in modern times many Sorreters are not particularly religious, and may not maintain close relationships with spirits, beyond their time as apprentices. In fact, many Sorreters these days also give little thought to the involvement of science in magic, as the earliest generations did. Science is no longer a practical consideration in most magical spells, but rather restricted to much more advanced and/or experimental types of sorretry.